Why such hate? A review of Suicide Squad

Initially, when I saw the trailer for Suicide Squad, I was unimpressed and uninterested. It didn’t necessarily strike me as bad, but it didn’t do much to win my interest compared to the other big comic movies this year, namely, Captain America: Civil War, Batman V. Superman, and Doctor Strange. I enjoyed the first of those two, the second one, well… let’s just say that DC’s cinematic universe is off to a shakier start than Marvel’s was. I think someone forgot to tell Zack Snyder that there is a such thing as too many plotlines in one movie.

Anyway.

As it came closer to release, I ended up having a lot more interest in Suicide Squad than anything else DC is releasing. At least this movie looked fun and not overly full of itself. Did it deliver on the level comic fans hoped? I don’t think so, but I for the life of me cannot understand what is going on with the critical backlash for this film.

Suicide Squad is messy, to be sure. Admittedly, when you have this many characters that have never been introduced on the big screen before, it’s hard to get away from having a lot of exposition and flashbacks. Some of these, as was the case for Deadshot and Harley Quinn, were interesting to watch but were split and spliced into the narrative at seemingly random times. Some characters get virtually no background or development at all, or have their stories told toward the end of the movie (such as with Diablo; it’s nice to have the character tell his own story instead of having it hamfistingly narrated, but it comes across as strange when everyone else has their story told in flashback). I attribute this and the seeming randomness of some scenes to sloppy editing and storyboarding. I suspect there is a lot of content that was either cut or drastically re-arranged because the story and progression of the action does not flow very well.

Part of this too is because the villain is a strange choice to pit these characters against. Really, Enchantress and her brother are so overpowered compared to the mostly human Suicide Squad that I couldn’t but wonder why the world governments didn’t try to recruit Batman, Flash, or Wonder Woman over these questionable, villainous rejects. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the characters composing the Suicide Squad, in fact quite the opposite, but I can’t help but feel like this movie would’ve worked so much better if they went up against a much more grounded threat, like some evil dictator and his army or a rogue terrorist group. Movie cliches, sure, but so too are the Beam of Death in the Middle of the City and the Big CGI Villain with Mysterious Tentacle Powers.

This article probably seems negative so far, but I did really enjoy this film despite its weird and disappointing shortcomings. Jared Leto as Joker was… interesting, but didn’t have enough screen time to properly judge. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn is absolutely spot-on and stole every scene she was in. Will Smith brought a great charisma to the role of Deadshot and made the mercenary someone who was likable enough to root for even if he is a villain. I enjoyed most of the other characters as well, except I had a hard time relating to Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag. To me he still comes across as wooden, as much so as in the RoboCop remake (a film that I have come to dislike more ever since we initially reviewed it on this site).

There is one scene in particular where Flag basically betrays what he has claimed to stand for by his own inaction. This scene isn’t the actor’s fault necessarily, as I chalk it up to either bad writing or bad editing. Perhaps it will make more sense in a second viewing, but the whole lead up to said scene is confusing. The movie leads you to believe that the Squad’s mission to take on the big baddy building the beam of light in Midway City, but then their official mission ends up being to rescue the woman who put the Squad together in the first place. It all feels sloppy and poorly set up.

In other superhero and comic book films, flaws like these have made me dislike my time with the movie. Fortunately, Suicide Squad has enough fun, enough style, enough heart to keep itself afloat despite the mess of a plot and lackluster writing. The actors really bring a lot of life to their characters. I couldn’t wait to see every moment that Deadshot or Harley Quinn were on screen. She was so infectiously fun to watch that I now almost like the live action Harley more than the one from the Batman animated series. Captain Boomerang was hysterical even if he was all but useless in the story. Killer Croc was sadly underdeveloped, but the potential is there for him to have a presence in a standalone Batman movie in this new continuity.

And that, I think, nicely sums up how I feel about DC’s cinematic universe up to this point: it’s a mess but can still be fun. The writing and overarching direction is all over the place, but if more of their films can channel the fun and humanity underneath the neon, spray painted explosion that is Suicide Squad, I am willing to stay on the ride a little longer.

This movie is far from the travesty that the professional critics make it out to be. It is a deeply flawed film, and admittedly it is going to be hard for someone who doesn’t like comics or who doesn’t know the characters to enjoy it as much as I did, but Suicide Squad is head and shoulders above the absolute garbage and endless, unnecessary remakes that the film industry is happy to produce on a regular basis.

Vote with your wallets. Give this movie a chance before you spend your money on yet another remake.